Jonathan Harshman Winters (November 11, 1925 – April 11, 2013) was an American comedian, actor, author, television host, and artist.

He also had records released every decade for over 50 years, receiving 11 Grammy nominations, including eight for Best Comedy Album, during his career.

Winters also spent time painting and presenting his artwork, including silkscreens and sketches, in many gallery shows.

His grandfather, a frustrated comedian, owned the Winters National Bank, which failed as the family's fortunes collapsed during the Great Depression.

The newlyweds couldn't afford to buy another one; then Eileen read about a talent contest in which the first prize was a wristwatch and encouraged Jonathan to "go down and win it."

Jerome R. "Ted" Reeves, then program director for WBNS-TV, arranged for his first audition with CBS in New York City.

[15] After promising his wife that he would return to Dayton if he did not make it in a year, and with $56.46 in his pocket, he moved to New York City, staying with friends in Greenwich Village.

"[7] His big break occurred (with the revised name of Jonathan) when he worked for Alistair Cooke on the CBS Television Sunday morning show Omnibus.

Later, he became a spokesman for Hefty brand trash bags, for whom he appeared as a dapper garbageman known for collecting "gahr-bahj," as well as "Maude Frickert" and other characters.

[17] Winters also appeared in commercials as a spokesman for other brands such as Good Humor ice cream and the California Egg Commission.

Probably the best known of his characters from this period is "Maude Frickert", the seemingly sweet old lady with the barbed tongue (reportedly named for comedic actress Maudie Prickett).

Carson invented a character called "Aunt Blabby", who was similar to and possibly inspired by "Maude Frickert".

[5] Fellow comedians who starred with him in Mad World, such as Arnold Stang, said that in the long periods while they waited between scenes, Winters entertained them for hours in their trailer by becoming any character that they suggested to him.

From December 1967 to June 1969, Winters helmed his own hour-long weekly variety program on CBS (similar to the then-popular Red Skelton and Carol Burnett shows on the same network).

[20] He later participated in ABC's The American Sportsman, hosted by Grits Gresham, who took celebrities on hunting, fishing, and shooting trips to exotic places around the world.

[5] Additionally, he was a regular (along with Woody Allen and Jo Anne Worley) on a Saturday morning children's television program Hot Dog in the early 1970s.

Due to the different Orkan physiology, Mork laid an egg, which grew and hatched into the much older Winters.

He played Gunny Davis, an eccentric grandfather helping raise his grandchildren after his son lost his wife.

In an interesting role reversal, he was the serious-minded secular police chief and uncle of the character Lamont Cranston (played by Alec Baldwin) in The Shadow.

That same year, PBS aired Pioneers of Television,[30] and Make 'Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America in 2009,[31] both featuring Winters.

[36] In his interview with the Archive of American Television, Winters reported that he spent eight months in a private psychiatric hospital in 1959 and again in 1961.

During his classic "flying saucer" routine, Winters casually mentions that if he was not careful, the authorities might put him back in the "zoo", referring to the institution.

A devotee of Groucho Marx and Laurel and Hardy, Winters once claimed, "I've done for the most part pretty much what I intended."

"[7] Winters lived near Santa Barbara, California, and was often seen browsing or "hamming" for the crowd at the antique and gun shows on the Ventura County fairgrounds.

"[47] With his round, rubber-faced mastery of impressions (including ones of John Wayne, Cary Grant, Groucho Marx, James Cagney, and others) and improvisational comedy, Winters became a staple of late-night television with a career spanning more than six decades.

"[3] Winters performed a wide range of characters: hillbillies, arrogant city slickers, nerve-shattered airline pilots trying to hide their fear, disgruntled westerners, judgmental Martians, little old ladies, nosy gas station attendants, a hungry cat eyeing a mouse, the oldest living airline stewardess, and more.

"I was fighting for the fact that you could be funny without telling jokes," he told The New York Times, adding that he thought of himself foremost as a writer and less as a stand-up comedian.

[3] Two of his most memorable characters, cranky granny "Maude Frickert" and bumpkin farmer "Elwood P. Suggins" ("I think eggs 24 hours a day"), were born from his early television routines.

[3] Winters was an inspiration for performers such as Johnny Carson, Billy Crystal, Tracey Ullman, Lily Tomlin, Steve Martin, Jim Carrey, and Jimmy Kimmel.

[48] In a 1991 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Winters likened the entertainment industry to the Olympics, with actors standing on boxes to receive gold, silver, and bronze medals.